


Not Like This

by uaigneach



Series: We Weren’t Meant to be Heroes [17]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Badass Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Blood and Injury, F/M, Hurt Adrien Agreste, Hurt Chat Noir, Identity Reveal, Like violently hurt, Major Character Injury, Marinette is kinda scary guys, Non-Canonical Violence, Poor Adrien, Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-04-25 22:24:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14388357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uaigneach/pseuds/uaigneach
Summary: Adrien rubbed his cheek, "cats have nine lives, Mari.""But you don't""No, I don't."Or how Marinette found out who Chat Noir was behind the mask.





	Not Like This

**Author's Note:**

> Just some more background info on my universe

Things had been heating up lately - no surprise there. They were about a year into their stint as superheroes and that meant citizens had been getting akumatized for nearly a year and a half. Since then, the akumas have been steadily increasing.

In those first 6 months, there had been a grand total of 4 akuma attacks. They'd all been relatively minor too - the police easily being able to handle them. But as time went one, the akumas began to increase in both strength and frequency. It made sense; Hawkmoth had gotten familiar with his powers and settled on a schedule of sorts. That's when Adrien and Marinette had been gifted with their powers. At first, they were completely awful – clumsy and dumb due to new senses. But just like Hawkmoth, they eventually adapted.

And as they steadily improved, so did Hawkmoth. He even had 6 months on them! It only made sense that a year and a half later, things had upped on all levels. Akumas nearly every 5 days, and people were getting hurt.

During the first couple of months, damage was able to be completely erased by the Lucky Charm, but as the power of the akumas increased, so did the danger. The Lucky Charm was still able to reverse any and all property damage – thank whatever deity you believe in because those akumas can destroy entire areas of the city – injuries began to stay.

It started with them – bruises not being healed, small cuts and scrapes, your basic everyday stuff. Easily explained away, especially since the kwamis did their best to minimize the lasting injuries. Lacerations became shallow cuts, broken bones and sprained joints were simply deep aches. The kwamis worked during their off hours to heal them too, so it wasn't that big of an inconvenience.

But then civilians started keeping their own cuts and bruises.

 

Then, the akumas started getting more violent and even angrier. They didn't just use the citizens in their ongoing war against society and Ladybug and Chat Noir. Now more often than not, their entire motivation was curved towards seeking revenge. That wasn't great for the two heroes, but so far the revenge hadn't been _too_ murderous. But Ladybug's good luck didn't cancel out Chat Noir's bad luck, and as always, the tentative certainty quickly went out the window.

And that basically lead up to this moment. Here they were, not 500m from the Eiffel Tower, battling yet another pissed off akuma. This akuma had been a lycée student – someone who apparently greatly enjoyed shop class because their weapons of choice were power tools because why not? It was always a fun time having various saw blades (broken and rusty too – can't just have the cake, you gotta eat it too) launched at high speeds at you.

For their part, the two superheroes were doing alright. Not great, but they'd evacuated all the civilians and that had been their main focus. They could now concentrate completely on defeating this akuma. Well… almost completely. Alya was pushing her own luck by hiding on top of a far away building so that she could film. The Ladyblog was a great supporter of the two miraculous wielders, but Marinette just wished that it didn't have to put her best friend in danger.

"My Lady!"

She had looked away to check on Alya for less than a second. But that was all it took for things to go tits up. Before she could even properly react to the panicked yell behind her, she was being pushed to the side and out of the way. She fell inelegantly but the pain in her palms at the rough fall wasn't what she was paying attention to anymore. Instead, she was paying attention to the pained shriek coming from where she'd just been.

Weeks after this, she'd still be remembering that scream of agony. It was burned in her memories now.

Her partner was standing where she'd been just moments ago, all hunched over. There was a spray of blood in the air – oh god, she'd never seen that much blood before. It had splattered all over the ground, and the puddle just kept _growing_. Oh god, she didn't know what to do – there were warm droplets landing on her cheeks. It was his _blood_.

"Chat!" she screamed, nearly tripping over herself as she tried to scramble to his side as he slowly fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. Unfortunately, the akuma was still very much there and demanding her attention.

By the time she'd finished dispatching the akuma, Chat Noir had stopped screaming and he wasn't moving, although the puddle was still growing. She didn't even bother to help the akuma victim like she normally would, instead, rushing towards her partner's side as she threw the Lucky Charm into the air. "Lucky Charm!" she yelled, desperately praying that it would fix Chat's wounds. But the puddle didn't vanish and Chat Noir didn't stand up and smile like he normally would. Instead, there was a heavy clink of metal against stone, a squelch as blood began to flow once more, and a whimper of pain.

She collapsed by his side, slowly rolling him over to see how bad the damage was. He was in a right state; blood and something she could only compare to ground beef and the components put into haggis, was everywhere and his limbs twitched every now and then. They were tense with pain and his face was pinched. Her hands flutter uselessly above Chat Noir's bloody abdomen. God, she can't even tell how far it goes.

"Oh my god, oh my god," she whispered frantically. She didn't know what she was supposed to do in this situation. There's so much blood and it's everywhere. "What do I do?" she pleaded softly, tears beginning to gather in her eyes. She doesn't know what she's doing, and she's never felt more out of her depth. Not even when she first met Tikki.

Suddenly she's gathered him in her arms (he's too light0 and she's fleeing from the square. She doesn't know where she's going, only that she has to get him away; get him somewhere safe. Before she knows it, she's back in her room and she's laying him down on top of a blanket on her chaise. He's unconscious now, and for a second, she was afraid that he was dead – the blood had stopped flowing – but then she saw the minuscule movement of his chest. She collapsed by his side, hurriedly de-transforming and digging under the chaise for her pathetic basic first aid kit. There wasn't much in there, but it was all that she had.

"Please, Tikki. I don't know what to do." The small kwami had made a beeline for her plate of cookies, but she'd also unearthed a plate of cheese.

Her small face was painted with worry and regret as she floated over to inspect the wounded area. With the bleeding stopped, it was much easier to see just how much the circular saw blade had done. "He's not looking all that good, Marinette." Tikki pursed her lips and her eyes began to water. "I know that I said that you shouldn't reveal your identities to each other, but that luxury has been taken from us and there's nothing we can do about it now. Plagg is using too much energy to keep up the transformation. He can't do anything more than stop the bleeding right now."

Almost as if on cue, Chat de-transformed into a small black kwami and none other than Adrien Agreste. But Marinette didn't have the time to freak out about her crush being Chat Noir because if something didn't happen soon he was going to die.

 

(Later, Marinette would absolutely flip out every time that Adrien wore red.

It would take only a month for her to get used to the sight of blood on her chaise.)

 

Tikki immediately shoved the cheese into the other kwami's mouth, and as soon as he'd eaten about half the plate of cheese and a third of the cookies, the wound had begun to slowly but surely stitch itself up. Without saying a word, Marinette had gone to grab some more food, being stopped by her mother in the kitchen. "Marinette? What's that on your face?"

Oh. She'd forgotten that Adrien's blood had splattered onto her cheek.

"It's just paint, Maman. I'm working on an art project right now." Her voice sounded hollow even to her ears. All the same, her mother didn't follow her as she robotically grabbed food and returned to her room.

She absently wiped at her cheek as she set down the tray to sit beside a slowly healing Adrien. His face was pale and pinched with pain. She smoothed out his bangs, caressing his cool cheek. How much blood had he lost? "I'll have to throw away that blanket." She remarked absently. "The blood won't come out." She felt so damn helpless, not being able to do anything more than be there as her partner fought for his life.

Have you ever had that moment, where you're sitting and waiting? Completely helpless and clues as to what happens next. No one could tell her anything because there was nothing to tell. She at least had the chance to watch as progress was made, something not offered to those waiting in bright and white hospital waiting rooms. Was it a blessing or a curse? She couldn't tell.

 

 

It took 5 hours and 3 different rips to get food, but Plagg had managed to close the wound. It was covered in scar tissue and looked like what you'd imagine a lightning scar to look like. It didn't bulge all that much, but it reached halfway through him and sprawled across his stomach. It was horrifying and Marinette felt awful.

Of course, that feeling was heavily augmented by the fact that now that Adrien was no longer at death's door, she had the time to freak out about the fact that _Adrien_ was Chat Noir. Her partner was infatuated with her alter ego, was none other than the guy that _she_ was infatuated with. He was so amazing behind the mask, and she was just… Marinette.

He was going to be so disappointed.

She could always transform, but she'd taken him to her room, and Adrien had just saved her life without a care for his own. He deserved to know who he was saving. Hopefully, he wouldn't hate her.

 

And so she waited with baited breaths for her partner to wake up. Luckily for her nerves, it wasn't that long after Plagg finished his intense healing session (and subsequently passed out – Tikki was looking after her own kitty) that he began to stir. It started with some twitching and then he groaned as he tried to roll off the chair.

"Don' move, you're still recovering and even if you're all healed, you're still going to be sore." She said softly, reaching forwards to gently push him back down. His eyes cracked open slowly and he started at her blearily, his hand flying up to touch his stomach.

"Marinette?" he mumbled, recognition beginning to show in his eyes. She smiled softly and nodded. He furrowed his eyebrows, "wait, am I in your room? What am I doing here/"

Her smile tightened, "You got really hurt, Adrien. You took a major hit for Ladybug, and then I brought you here." He froze up, suddenly looking much more awake as he struggled to sit up.

"Ladybug? Is she okay?" Then he realized something. ‘Wait, you know who I am? Oh my gosh, Mari you can't tell anyone about this, Ladybug will kill me for revealing my identity!" he began to panic, struggling to get up.

Marinette hurriedly shushed him as she wrestled him back onto the chaise. "Shh, Chaton. I'm not mad about that, okay? It wasn't a situation that you can control – although I do wish you would be more careful. You have no idea how worried I was!" she was rambling now, but the full weight of the situation she'd found herself in had just begun to fully sink in.

"My Lady?" he asked dumbly. She could only smile awkwardly with tear filled eyes.

"It's me, Chaton. I hope you're not disappointed."

He practically launched himself at her, pulling her into the tightest hug. "I could never be disappointed in you, Mari. I'm so glad you're okay!" he grinned. "It looks like this cat has some good luck after all – my Lady is the most badass girl I know! I love you, Mari." She clutched onto him just as tightly.

"I love you too, my Chaton." She whispered wetly. But then she pulled away and slapped him right across the face. "Don't you ever do that again! I thought you were going to die! You're lucky Plagg can heal you!" she nearly yelled, only stopping herself when she remembered that her parents were home. "I thought you were going to die."

Adrien rubbed his cheek, "cats have nine lives, Mari."

"But you don't"

"No, I don't. But Mary, I'm not going to stop saving you."

"Just… please don't die."

"I promise."

*

_"At 3:34 P.M. yesterday, yet another akuma attack occurred. Activity and danger has been escalating, and it seems to have come to a head with one of Paris' heroes being potentially fatally wounded. As of yet, the Ladyblog remains silent in the wake of the city's discovery of the bloody scene, and no one has come out with any footage of the actual battle. Our hearts go out to the two heroes – we hope that wherever they are, they're okay. The city's efforts to quarantine the scene have…"_

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Alessandra for the request! I hope this is satisfactory


End file.
